Kevin Rudd (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade and International Security) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Foreign Affairs and follows my earlier question to the Minister for Trade which he suggested I should address to the Minister for Foreign Affairs. I refer to a statement from Mr Flugge of 22 March 2005 which states: ‘In the end, we probably used up to $US1 million in cash with no problems whatsoever.’ I also refer to a statement by a member of Mr Flugge’s team of the same date: ‘The Australian government was terrific in giving us the licence to get things done.’ Can the minister confirm whether Mr Trevor Flugge or Mr Flugge’s team transported over $1 million in cash from Kuwait to Baghdad between May and July 2003? How much cash did Mr Flugge have discretionary use of during his Baghdad posting?

Alexander Downer (Mayo, Liberal Party, Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The question not only attacks Mr Flugge, which the Labor Party enjoys so much, but assumes that because Mr Flugge and his team used cash in Iraq at that time—

Opposition Member:

How much?

Alexander Downer (Mayo, Liberal Party, Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

however much it may have been—there was somehow something inappropriate about that. Let me explain. Is there something inappropriate about using cash in a country straight after a war when there is no banking system? Indeed, he used cash. There was no other way of financing the rehabilitation of agriculture in Iraq because there was no banking system. I know the Labor Party is thick, but on this side of the House we believed in helping the Iraqi people, we believed in getting rid of Saddam Hussein, we believed in helping restore Iraqi agriculture, and we are not so thick that we did not know you had to pay for it; we knew that. If there is no banking system, how were we meant to pay for it? If Mr Flugge used $1 million, he would have used a substantial—

Kevin Rudd (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade and International Security) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, I rise on a point of order that goes to standing order 104. My question was: how much money did he have discretionary use of?

David Hawker (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Griffith will resume his seat. The minister is in order.

Alexander Downer (Mayo, Liberal Party, Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am not arguing with his numbers. The point I am making is that he used Australian funds. He had to use cash—not cheques, Visa cards or American Express cards—to make payments to contractors rehabilitating infrastructure. The disappointing thing for the Labor Party is that all of these payments were fully acquitted.